Zoringen Hammer: Searching For Someting Real
by Panthour
Summary: The heart is where the hammer strikes hardest. Lisbeth and her reclusive friend from the real world Tenshi learn this the hard way. Both girls suffer alone, but together they are unstoppable. Can Lisbeth heal Tenshi's heart? Or will the threat of a conspiracy on their doorstep break them apart. Eventual Shoujo-ai/Yuri/Femslash. Lisbeth/OFC. (CHAPTER 1 UP!) May change to M later.


Searching For Something Real

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**Hello Everyone!**

**This is my first story here on fanfiction so I hope you treat me well! But not too well, I still need some constructive criticism on this story.**

**Just some disclaimers!**

**Everything other than my OC is owned by the creators of Sword Art Online and I hold no rights towards their property.  
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**This is a Shoujo-ai/Yuri fic, so If the idea of 2 women in love does not appeal to you I suggest you turn back now, you have been warned.**

**Please help me to make the story better by giving me some constructive criticism, It will be very much appreciated.**

**I will try to follow canon as closely as possible, aside from this main pairing obviously.**

**I hope you enjoy the story!**

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Chapter 1: Refectory Blues

"Hana-chan!"

The shout reverberated off the walls of the cafeteria, disturbing its many teenage patrons. It was a large room, with huge windows all along one side, and many tables spread throughout the room. Sunlight streamed through the windows and just like any other junior high school, the din of senseless school chatter filled the refectory, as kids chatted about their days and the newest trends.

'Hana-chan' sunk further into her seat and sighed in annoyance. She was in the corner of the room, content to ignore and be ignored, while reading her magazine, but it was not to be, as it seemed her dark corner had been located by the one person she was hiding from.

Only one person in the whole school called her by the childish moniker 'Hana-chan' and just as she was thinking of possible ways to escape this dire situation, the subject of her thoughts appeared in front of her.

Normally she would jump at the thought of having a friend, but the girl leaning on the table and peering over her magazine seemed to be the exception. All she wanted was a friend who was just as quiet as she was, who shared her interests and accepted who she was, without ridiculing her, but apparently that was too much to ask for. Instead she was cursed with the prospective friendship of the energetic and overly friendly girl in front of her. As much as she tried to ignore her, she just couldn't bring herself to completely shut her out like people did to her, so she instead opted for listening to the girl's ramblings and hoping that she got bored and conversed with her other friends instead.

'Hana-chan' peered over the edge of her blue rimmed glasses and stared into the dark pink gaze of her excited acquaintance. As always she observed the girl's shoulder length brown hair, pert nose, and freckled face. Her bangs were held aside with a hairpin, and when looking back into her eyes, she could see the excitement and happiness that always seemed to be there.

'_Is this girl ever upset?_' She thought, with an inward frown. It seemed the girl in front of her was friendly to everyone, and never appeared to be upset or discontent in any way. '_My complete opposite'_.

The girl grinned and opened her small mouth to speak.

"Hana-chan, guess what?" The girl beamed.

'Hana-chan' cringed and fixed the girl with a withering stare upon hearing the epithet. The brown haired girl opposite seemed to understand as she rolled her eyes and continued.

"_Takagi-san_," She stressed with a teasing grin, "My copy of SAO arrived in the mail today, did yours?" She asked with an excited grin. '_Ah yes', _Takagi Hanako thought, '_Excitement for the upcoming SAO, the only thing we seem to have in common.'_

Being released tomorrow, the very first VRMMORPG – Virtual reality massively multiplayer online role playing game – Sword Art Online, or SAO for short. The latest in Full Dive technology and together with the Nerve Gear system, you have the makings of one of the highly anticipated games of 2022. Being both an Otaku and an avid gamer, Hanako couldn't resist signing up for the beta all those months ago. Despite not getting in, she had read many rumours and reviews of how fantastic the beta of SAO was, and she pre-ordered it immediately. Using all of her accumulated allowances from her sister, Hanako managed to buy both the Nerve Gear and a copy of SAO.

Derailing her thoughts and bringing her attention back to her excited acquaintance, Hanako nodded her head timidly, "I-I already told you that it would come the same day as yours Shinozaki-san, there isn't any need to remind me of it every day." She said trying to cover up her excitement with a frown.

The pink eyes in front of her sparkled with glee. '_Oh no'_ Hanako thought, as she realised her excitement was easily visible, '_here it comes'_.

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Shinozaki Rika, or 'Rika-chan', as she insisted Hanako called her grinned as she observed he poorly hidden excitement in the reclusive girl's eyes. '_She's so cute!_' Rika thought, imagining all of the other times the girl in front of her tried to hide her anticipation towards the upcoming SAO with her clearly false abrasive nature.

Many people in the school seemed to think that was her true personality, as she tended to avoid everyone and keep to herself. Rika new of the harsh words directed at the timid girl and was very much against it, so when she saw Hanako reading an article about SAO she jumped at the opportunity to make friends with the otaku through curiosity and a mutual interest.

'_She's not making it easy for me though!_' Rika thought. The girl was somewhat of an enigma to her, and she was determined to become her friend and discover why she seemed to shut everyone out. Even before the terrible rumours about her started, she was still very quiet and had barely any friends, but the harsh words by many of her peers seemed to strengthen her walls against those who wished only to help her. _'Though it seems I'm the only person here willing to try.'_

She sat down on the chair opposite Hanako and peered into her deep blue eyes.

"I knew it!" She exclaimed, "You're just as excited as me about this aren't you Hana-chan? I can tell just by looking at your eyes! Tell me, what character build will you play? What will your character look like? What stats will you…?"

Rika slowly trailed off her excited questions as she saw a tiny smile on Hanako's face. The girl tried to hide the cute little smile by raising her magazine back up to her face, but Rika still caught a tiny glimpse before it was hidden away.

She didn't think it was possible because of the copious amount of sunlight streaming into the cafeteria through its huge windows but it seemed as though Hanako's smile lit up the entire room. Rika had never seen her companion smile; instead she would always be looking into that blank, aloof expression the shy girl always plastered on her face. '_Smiling is definitely better_,' Rika thought.

The brown haired girl smiled sweetly and grabbed the gaming magazine from Hanako's hands and put it on the table. The girl was still smiling, and Rika was overjoyed that she had been the cause, even if she was confused about how she caused it in the first place.

"What are you smiling about?" Rika asked. Her inane curiosity getting the better of her. Hanako seemed taken aback and stammered for an answer.

"W-well it's just that even though you're quite annoying," Rika's eye twitched at this unintentionally insulting remark, but Hanako didn't seem to notice the manga like expression as she continued, "you've been really kind to me for no reason. I guess it's just nice to have someone who wants to be my friend for once." Rika smiled at this, but that quickly dissolved as she saw the distraught look that suddenly appeared on Hanako's face, as if she just realised something drastic, "R-Rika-san, w-what if people stop liking you b-because you associate with someone l-like me? I don't want you t-to lose any of you f-friends, they m-might start b-being mean to you t-too." Hanako seemed to become particularly upset as she continued on, and her earlier smile was replaced by an expression of sadness, which once again, Rika only caught a glimpse of, before Hanako bowed her head and hid behind her black bangs.

Rika inwardly smiled at being called 'Rika-san', but immediately filed that away for later amusement when she though on the rest of the conversation. '_Of course'_ Rika thought with a grimace, '_her already low self-esteem was indeed made even worse by the rumours about her and the scathing remarks she received_.'

Everyone in the school had heard the rumours about Hanako being a lesbian. They were particularly relentless, and Rika didn't understand how kids in junior high could be so horrible. She didn't know if they were true, but she knew that many of the things people said were exaggerated. It started out innocent enough, with people lightly teasing Hanako about reading Shoujo-ai and Yuri manga, but when a rumour that she was seen kissing a girl spread like wildfire, it turned from innocently teasing the shy girl to all out bullying and ridicule. Girls complained about changing in the same room as her for sports, and she received hate and verbal abuse from many of the particularly bigoted traditional families. Rika didn't mind being around Hanako, even if the rumours were in fact true, yet sometimes she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable when fixed with Hanako's piercing blue gaze. It was almost as if she could see into her soul.

Rika quickly spoke up to avoid making the girl even more upset, "Don't be silly Hana-chan," She explained, reverting back to the nickname, "I don't care what people say about you, and I certainly don't care about how they think of me. I can be your friend if I want, and that's exactly what I am going to do!" She said with a bright smile. Hanako cautiously looked up slightly and peered over the top of her glasses, clearly searching for a hint of doubt. After only a few moments Rika could just about see the shy smile that had returned to her face and it warmed her heart. She couldn't help but want to see that smile every day. It was clear that Hanako craved friendship, but also shied away from it, because of her obvious fear of either being hurt further, or hurting her friends because of her 'reputation'.

"R-really?" Hanako asked shyly, and at Rika's enthusiastic nod she continued, blushing, "I-I've never really had any proper friends before."

Rika smiled reassuringly, not at all put off by the black haired girl's awkwardness. "Well how about we play SAO together tomorrow when it's released, I'll be logging in straight away, so we can play all day!" Rika squealed excitedly. Talking about SAO again seemed to get them both excited.

Hanako blanched at the straightforward suggestion, but quickly recovered and thought about it for a moment.

"W-well I don't really know what I-I'm going to call my character so m-maybe we should wait until next week, when w-we've created our characters, then we c-can trade info then." Hanako stuttered, seemingly embarrassed, and Rika could see a faint blush on her cheeks.

'_Oh my_,' Rika thought, '_she must be lonely if she gets embarrassed when someone asks her to play video games with her_.'

Rika grinned and stood up, startling the flustered girl, "Great!" she proclaimed, striking an embarrassing pose that garnered quite a bit of unwanted attention, "I can't wait!"

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Hanako watched, embarrassed, with a shocked expression as the cheerful Rika sauntered away, her gaze fixed firmly on the backside of her new friend.

Hanako blushed even further when she realised where she had been staring. But then became upset at the consequences of Rika seeing such an action. '_She would probably be just like the rest,'_ she thought bitterly, '_so I'd better not make her feel uncomfortable. She may be okay with me being gay, but it doesn't mean she will be okay with me ogling her all the time.'_

Hanako realised that despite her inward protests not 10 minutes ago, she had somehow smiled, been friendly and even become friends with the persistent Shinozaki Rika. She smiled again when she thought about it. '_Maybe having a friend won't be too bad'_ Hanako thought.

She remembered her first meeting with the brunette; she didn't say a word, only glaring at the girl willing her to leave. Of course, she didn't, instead she explained her interest in SAO despite the fact that she had never played any form of video game before. Hanako remembered frowning then, and wondering why a girl such as Rika would want to play a VRMMO.

The routine went on for many months, Rika would join her for lunch occasionally and talk about the news she had heard about SAO and the info leaked from the beta and other media. Eventually Hanako would even add her own input, albeit in one or two word answers.

Hanako didn't know how such bland one sided conversations ended with becoming friends, but one thing was for certain, she would not call the pink eyed girl Rika-chan or Ricchan or any of the other silly monikers she had given herself. And Hanako would certainly not tolerate being called Hana-chan or the even more moe Hana-nyan, despite how wonderful they sounded rolling off the energetic girl's tongue.

Hanako started to blush again at her sudden train of thought, and ducked her head in embarrassment.

Luckily, the sound of the bell derailed any more thoughts on Rika's tongue, and for that, Hanako was thankful. The bell marked the end of the lunch break, and the start of afternoon lessons. Remembering her schedule, Hanako realised that lunch ended at 1pm, making this moment in time especially significant.

Hanako smiled with excitement as she walked through the corridors, a rare sight for passers-by.

It was 1pm on November 5th 2022, and in exactly 24 hours, SAO will officially begin.

'_Bring it on!_'

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**Right! That's the first chapter done, I wanted to make it longer but I figured it could end here, and then the preparation for SAO will be the next chapter.  
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**Remember to give feedback so I can improve!**


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